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ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

In this image, astronomers use NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and a cosmic
zoom lens to uncover the farthest known galaxy in the universe.

The newly discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, is very young and only a
tiny fraction of the size of our Milky Way. The object is observed 420 million
years after the big bang, when the universe was 3 percent of its present age of
13.7 billion years. The inset at left shows a close-up of the young dwarf galaxy.

This is the latest discovery from a large program that uses massive clusters of
galaxies as natural zoom lenses to reveal distant galaxies in the early universe.
Called the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH), the
program allows astronomers to use the gravity of massive galaxy clusters to
magnify distant galaxies behind them, an effect called gravitational lensing.

In this Hubble observation, astronomers used the massive galaxy cluster MACS
J0647+7015 as the giant cosmic telescope. The bright yellow galaxies near the
center of the image are cluster members. The cluster's gravity boosted the light
from the faraway galaxy, making its image appear approximately eight times
brighter than it otherwise would. The gravitational lensing technique allowed
astronomers to detect the galaxy more efficiently and with greater confidence.
Without the cluster's magnification powers, astronomers would not have seen
this remote galaxy.

This image is a composite taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and the
Advanced Camera for Surveys. The observations were taken Oct. 5 and Nov. 29,
2011.